A Jewel For An Arrow
by ElizaSchorn
Summary: Roy Harper finally falls in love with the right woman, but he's going to need his best friend's help when his daughter's mother becomes murderously jealous.///Please review!
1. Chapter 1

"I have a date."

Dick Grayson looked up from the files he was going over. He stared at his best friend with an extremely doubtful expression, and said one thing: "Oh?"

Roy Harper mock-scowled at Dick. "Unbeliever."

"I'm sorry, I just wasn't sure you had said what I thought you had said." Dick answered mildly.

"I said, 'I have a date.' For tomorrow tonight, actually."

"Tomorrow night." Dick repeated meaningfully.

Roy really did scowl now. "Come on, Robbie, I don't do that with _every_ woman I come across."

"Right; just the ones that say 'yes'. That's a 99.9 percent majority, Roy."

Roy rolled his eyes in annoyance and threw himself down on the couch. And then just as quickly, jumped back up.

"$#*! What in the hell happened to the couch!?"

"It's a bit wet." Dick answered, looking at his files once more. "Lian and the twins were playing with water pistols earlier."

"A bit wet, my ass. It's soaking! You know Dick, babysitting generally includes keeping the baby from destroying her father's property."

"You think I didn't try? Lian is as stubborn as …well, _you_. And have you ever tried to take anything away from the 'Demon Twins'?" I had to call Wally back from his case so he could stop them from soaking the entire house."

Roy smirked. "Wally's getting his comeuppance for tormenting Barry for all those years. Twins with super-speed. Anyway, Dick, we were on the subject of my date."

Dick settled back into his chair with a sigh. Roy imitated him. While standing up; he was going nowhere near that couch for at least a week. Or however long it took to dry out.

"Your date." Dick repeated. "You mean an actual date, Roy? You know, dinner, a movie, talking to each other, you walk her home, she goes in, you walk back to your house?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean."

"You're sure?"

"I'm positive."

"Positive for what precisely?" Dick asked, earning him a glare from Roy.

"That's not funny."

"Alright, alright. So you've got a date. I'll go rescue the real Roy Harper after this conversation. What's her name, then?"

"Her name is Julia Carlyle, wise guy."

Dick's eyebrow shot up. "Lian's history teacher? The one she's always saying is 'really pretty, Daddy.' So you finally gave in, huh?"

Roy shrugged. "Jewel's nice."

"You have a nickname for her already!?" Dick exclaimed, laughing.

"Hey, she _is_ a jewel. You should see her with that classroom full of noisy, obnoxious kids—"

"Of which, Lian is one."

"No, she's not.

"She deluged the couch." Dick pointed out wryly.

"Wally's kids are a bad influence on her. She's a little angel." Roy said firmly, in the way that all fathers do when they don't want to admit that their precious bundles of joy have minds of their own.

Dick looked amused. Roy looked affronted. "I'm going up to say good-night to my daughter." he said, turning to go out of the room. "That is, if she isn't in the bathroom, flushing all the shampoo down the toilet!" he added sarcastically.

Dick burst out laughing. He'd had to surreptitiously replace all the shampoo already because Lian had done that very thing yesterday afternoon.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N… I should have written this in the first chapter, so here is my disclaimer. I do not claim any rights to these characters. These characters belong to DC comics. If they belonged to me, Batman would still be in his cave, being taciturn; he would not by any means have disappeared. As it is, I own this storyline. So please, "Imitation [being] the sincerest form of flattery" is not valid here. _

* * *

Julia Carlyle sat at her desk in her apartment and stared at the computer screen. She stared at it and yet did not see it. What she was seeing, in fact, was a vision of herself, standing in the middle of the store that afternoon, looking at something in the distance with her mouth hanging open in incredulous, yet elated shock.

_And why_, she asked herself, _did I choose that particular time to look like a beached fish?_ She tried to drive the embarrassing memory out of her head by smacking herself on the forehead. It didn't work.

Oh, well. He hadn't seemed to mind her expression anyway, so she was probably punishing herself over nothing. But why shouldn't she be a little bit- okay, make that a big bit- freaked out? After all, how many girls got asked out –yes, on a date- by a superhero. Vigilante. He'd stressed that part when she referred to him as a superhero. He said that he didn't have any superpowers. Red Arrow didn't have any superpowers; he used arrows, hence the name.

_I got asked out by Roy Harper._ She thought dizzily.

"What!?"

Julia jolted out of her reverie and looked over at her roommate, who had been watching Dancing With The Stars. "Hmm?"

Marcella Banzarano was sitting bolt upright on the sofa, staring not at the television in outrage, but at Julia in astonishment. "What!?" she said again.

Julia was confused for a moment. Then she remembered what she had been thinking. "Oh. Um, did I say that out loud?"

"If you're talking about the sentence 'I got asked out by Roy Harper', then yes, you did say that out loud!"

"Oh." Julia said again. "Right. He _did_ ask."

Marcella's eyes nearly popped out of her head. She leapt off the sofa, caught a nearby chair and dragged it over to the desk, plunking it down next to Julia and sitting in it. She pointed an imperious finger at her friend. "Explain." she demanded. "Where, how, when, and why."

"Huh?"

"Oh, that's intelligent." Julie gave her a look. Marcella persisted, "I mean, where were you when this happened, how on earth did it happen, when is this date going to happen, and why am I just now finding out about it?"

"It only happened this afternoon, I ran into him at the store of all places- you know his six-year-old daughter is in the class I teach? Anyway, it's set for tomorrow night, and I am in shock right now, which is why you are just now hearing about it." Julia said matter-of-factly.

"Roy Harper? _The_ Roy Harper? We're talking about the guy who dresses like a modern Robin Hood and shoots high-tech arrows at bad guys?"

Julie shook her head. "Actually, Green Arrow is the one who looks like Robin Hood, what with the green colors and the beard. Roy's color is red, so that would make him Will Scarlet. Robin Hood's second in command, you know."

"Oh, who cares!" Marcella cried, giving Julia a shake. "Do you know what this means? Wait. You said 'yes' right? When he asked you out? You said yes, please tell me you said yes!" She looked positively panic-stricken.

"I said 'yes'." Julia said obediently.

"Oh, don't be a twit; you're going to kill me with the suspense. Did you or did you not agree to go out with him?"

Julia grinned. "For Pete's sake, yes, I did."

"Really?"

"_Yes_."

"HALLELUJAH!" screamed Marcella. And she jumped up and started dancing around the apartment.

"You are insane." Julia observed calmly.

"_I_ am insane? Ha! _You_ are insane, my dear Julia. Why _you_ are not the one celebrating ecstatically is quite beyond me!" Marcella barely paused as she said this, and continued to skip madly about the desk.

"I told you, I'm in shock."

"Then get un-shocked! This is going to be so much fun!"

Julia laughed. "You aren't coming." she reminded her roommate.

"I know! I don't care! I'll help you get ready; what to wear, what not to wear- Oh! We have to get you something new, and you'll have to do something cute with your hair…"

"My hair." Julia said slowly.

"Yes, yes, of course. And we'll have to…Julia? Are you okay?" Marcella stopped spinning and peered at her friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine…Marcella?"

"What?"

"I'm going on a date tomorrow with Roy Harper."

A smile tugged at the corners of Marcella's mouth. "Yep. Is it sinking in yet?"

"You know what?" Julia said, beginning to beam, "I think it just did."

And with that, she grabbed Marcella and hugged her hard, and started to dance around the room herself, laughing excitedly. Marcella just shook her head at her crazy friend and laughed too.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N… I loved writing this chapter. DC comics should have more stories where Roy and his daughter interact; that one scene in Outsiders was so cute! _

Lian Harper leaned around the bedroom door, with as stern a look on her face as a six-year-old could muster. "Daddy!" she exclaimed, "You're using inappropriate language again."

Roy managed to get out of the tangle of clothes that was strewn about, and looked around at his daughter. "And you're using words way too big for you. Where on earth did you hear "inappropriate language" from?"

"Uncle Bruce said you use inappropriate language."

Roy grimaced. "Ah, of course. The Bat."

"_Anyway_, you were swearing again." Lian crossed her arms and gave her father a "Scarlett O'Hara" look. Roy sighed.

"Don't look at me like that. You look just like your mother."

Lian stopped at once.

Roy went back to rooting around under the bed. "Sorry about the language, sweetie. I'm trying to find a particular shirt that I know was in here yesterday."

"Which shirt?" Lian asked, getting down on the floor to peer under the bed with Roy. "And why do you need it?"

Roy sat up on his heels and gave Lian a cautious look. "I have a date tonight."

Lian sat up so fast, she almost cracked her head on the bed frame. "Really?"

She asked, sounding thrilled. This was not the reaction Roy had been expecting, but he certainly wasn't going to complain.

"Yes. Actually, you know her."

"I do?"

"Yeah, remember that teacher at your school that you were always trying to get me to go over and talk to?"

"The pretty one?" Lian's eyes were as big as dinner plates.

Roy laughed. "The pretty one."

"Yeeesssss!" Lian clapped her hands in delight. "See, I _told_ you, Daddy."

"You do seem to know everything." teased Roy. "Now, where is my shirt?"

Lian bit her lip. "I think, actually, I might have it."

Roy raised an eyebrow. "And here I was, joking around. Why would you have one of my shirts? I thought you already had dress-up clothes."

"I do, but they're all dresses, and Jai wanted to play with me and Iris yesterday."

Roy shot to his feet in horror. "Jai was playing with it?!?"

"Don't worry," Lian quickly added, "it's fine. I told him if he killed it, that I would ask Uncle Bruce how to get back at him." She ran into the next room and came back with Roy's missing shirt. "See? It's fine."

The shirt was indeed in one piece. "Good," Roy sighed in relief. Then he chuckled. "Nice move, threatening him with Batman."

Lian shrugged, as if it had been no trouble, looking very much like her father this time.

"Wait a minute." Roy frowned. "'If he _killed_ it?' What is that supposed to mean; it's a shirt, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah." giggled Lian "It's one your favorite shirts and Uncle Dick said that since you don't go anywhere without it, it might as well be a living thing."

Roy looked annoyed. "Dick just lets you run rampant, doesn't he? And people tell you all sorts of things when I'm not around. Just as well Dinah is watching you tonight. She won't gossip."

"But Grandma is no fun sometimes." pouted Lian.

Roy made a pained expression. "Because she won't let you soak the couch?"

Lian turned pink. "I was trying to hit Jai, and he kept jumping on the couch. And then he'd always use super-speed and get out of the way, and I kept hitting the couch!"

"That's all very well, but why were the water-pistols in the house?"

"Um, I forgot to put them away?"

Roy smiled. "Was that a question or a statement?'

"Both, I think." Lian answered, trying to look innocent and failing miserably.

Roy shook his head at his daughter's obviously unrepentant expression. "No more water pistols. Now, I don't suppose you know where my belts are."

"Nope. Maybe the flour bins?"

Roy looked sharply at Lian, and then realized she was joking. "Not. Funny."

Lian just grinned like a, well, a Cheshire cat_. How ironic, _thought Roy, as he dived under the bed again, this time looking for his belts. Hopefully, they were nowhere near the kitchen.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N_... _Fourth chapter is up! Next chapter has Julia and Roy together finally. By the way, I do not intend on turning Julia into a helpless character, but she _is_ going to be more "princess on a white horse" than "hardcore, butt-kicking heroine". She's a normal girl who falls in love with a superhero. And can anyone review? I am probably not going to have much time to respond to reviews, but it would be nice to know what you guys think._

Marcella Banzarano bit her lip as she put the last strand of hair in place. She was still biting her lip when she backed away from her friend and surveyed her work. Marcella was about to pronounce herself satisfied with the result, but she still had an expression of absorption which Julia took to mean that Marcella was not pleased with the effect. Julia, who was already under pressure of not wanting to be late, scowled up at Marcella.

"Marcy, if you have ruined my hair, I am going to kill you." she promised.

Marcella blinked, then laughed. "Don't worry; I was just making sure everything was in place."

"You were frowning." Julia pointed out, not convinced.

"Concentration, darling. All art requires it."

Julia was too nervous to roll her eyes. "My hair is not an art object! What have you done to it? I don't know why you wouldn't let me watch while you did it."

Marcella did roll her eyes. "Because you would have pointed out every thing wrong, and then I would _definitely_ have messed it up. Turn." she added in a commanding tone.

Julia took a deep breath that did not help at all, and carefully scooted around on the vanity stool so she was facing the mirror. "Oh!" she gasped.

Marcella had done a very good job arranging Julia's dark blond hair. Most of it was down around her shoulders, but Marcella had taken Julia's hair at the top of her head and braided it into an almost Celtic look. There were a few loose strands here and there that had a slight wave to them so that they seemed to be in perfect symmetry with her oval face. Marcella had also taken the liberty of doing Julia's makeup and surprisingly, had done it very tastefully, so the first thing people noticed about her would be her sapphire-colored eyes; not eyeliner in excess.

Marcella was rather well known for her intense fondness for eyeliner and mascara.

"I love it!!" squealed Julia, leaping up to crush her friend in a hug.

"Oomph! You're welcome, but careful how fast you move around!" Marcella admonished her.

"I will, I will, oh, I'm going to be late!" cried Julia in horror as she looked at the clock.

"Relax, late is fashionable." Marcella attempted to sooth her.

"No, it's not." came Julia's muffled voice from her closet where she was digging out her shoes. "And anyway," she added, resurfacing, "My dress is not all that, so it wouldn't be a very dramatic entrance." She checked her hair in the mirror, worried that her dive into the closet had mussed it.

"Not very dramatic." agreed Marcella "But if you wanted to make an impression, all you have to do is forget to strap a shoe on properly."

"What?" Julia asked warily.

"I mean, if it's not on properly, then sometime during the evening, you'll trip and fall…"

"No, no, and no." Julia said calmly, turning away from her friend who had obviously lost her mind.

"… right into Roy's arms." finished Marcella, looking smug.

Julia whirled around. "As tempting as that idea may be, I am not orchestrating any plans to fall into anyone's arms tonight."

"Oh, come on, you know you want to." Marcella grinned. "I'm serious here!"

"Yes, I know. That's what scares me. And scares half of your dates away too, I'll bet!"

Marcella raised an eyebrow with a threatening expression. "Watch it, girl. I brought that hair of yours into being and I can take it out!"

"Kidding, kidding!" Julia backed away, curling her arms protectively over her head.

"When are you supposed to leave again? Or is he picking you up?"

Julia shook her head. "He's not picking me up; a friend of his is, any minute now, at eight o'clock."

Marcella narrowed her eyes. "I thought it was some kind of rule that the guy comes to pick up his own date."

"Don't look so fierce, Marcy. There's a perfectly good reason why he can't pick me up himself."

"Well, I'd love to hear it." Marcella said testily, crossing her arms.

"He has monitor duty."

"He has what duty?"

"Monitor." explained Julia. "You know, at JLA headquarters. It was his turn to check satellite feeds and keep an eye on things, and his rounds intersected with the time he was supposed to pick me up."

Marcella seemed appeased. "Fine. So who is this friend of his? He a superhero too?"

"No idea. Roy only said that he trusts the man with his life. Which, I suppose, could be construed to mean that his friend is a superhero, or vigilante, or whatnot."

"Ooh, the suspense. What if he's better-looking than Roy?"

Julia glared at her friend. "Hairstyle or no, Marcella, you can be sooo shallow sometimes."

"Yeah, I know." Marcella said languidly "Sorry, I was just kidding… But what if he is?"

Julia raised her eyes to the ceiling as if asking for patience. "Marcella," she said, "Stop. If he is, more power to him -metaphorically speaking- and you can have him."

Marcella grinned. "Cool."

"And by "him" I mean Roy's friend, Marcy. Not Roy." Julia added sternly.

"I know, I know. Hey, there's the doorbell."

Julia looked panicked. Marcella shook her slightly. "Relax, girl. It's not the man himself."

"Right."

Julia calmed herself down and went to open the door. When she did, the first thought that came to her mind was, _Marcella's definitely going to want this one._

The man that stood in the doorway wasn't that tall; probably 5'10" or 11". But he seemed to radiate a sense of tallness, as if he was used to being an authority figure. His eyes were a startling shade of blue and seemed to take in everything with a glance. The thick, black hair falling into said eyes didn't appear to bother him, leading one to assume that he was used to it not going where it was supposed to. Yet despite the hair, or perhaps, because of it, he was absolutely gorgeous. And looked perfectly at ease. Of course, he would probably look perfect wherever he was. _He_ was perfect.

"You look like a Greek god. Roy may have competition."

Julia, who was not precisely sure how long she had been gaping at him, and who had been about to ask if he was, in fact, Roy's friend, started in surprise. The Greek god looked over her shoulder at the source of the voice, an almost rueful smile on his face. Julia turned around to give Marcella a look that told her to be quiet, and then turned back to the man.

"You're the friend then?" Marcella said, the minute Julia turned her back on her.

"I am." The man said, still smiling. He turned to Julia. "And you must be Julia Carlyle."

"Yep, that's me." Julia said. Then she remembered her manners. "Sorry, come in, won't you?"

"Sure." He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "I'm Dick Grayson." he added, putting out his hand. Julia shook it, and so did Marcella, who couldn't take her eyes off him.

"Nice to meet you, um," Julia stopped.

"Everyone calls me Dick." he said easily.

"Nice to meet you, Dick."

"_Very_ nice to meet you, Dick." put in Marcella, still gazing at him. Dick didn't seem to notice. Or maybe he was used to women staring at him like he was Gandhi.

"Marcella, go stare at something else, for Pete's sake." Julia said, half amused, half exasperated. Dick stifled a laugh. So he _had_ noticed. Marcella stuck her tongue out at her friend. She gave Julia a hug, wished her luck on her date, and disappeared into the kitchen, giving Dick a dazzling smile as she went.

"Just a moment, I need to get my coat."

Dick nodded and settled back against the door. While Julia unearthed her coat from the couch, he mentioned, off-handedly, "Roy said he might be a few minutes late. They had some problems with one of the satellites."

Julia shrugged into her coat, asking worriedly, "It didn't explode or anything, did it?"

Dick shook his head as he opened the door for her. "Not this time, thank God. It just wasn't responding. It's one of the older ones anyway; kind of expected to have problems."

"There better not be any problems for Julia." said Marcella, poking her head around the corner. "Or Mr. Harper will hear about it."

Julia gave her friend an affectionate glower as she stepped out of the apartment. Dick inclined his head toward Marcella in slightly amused respect, and shut the door behind them.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N…Okay, I know I haven't written in a while, so I wanted to give you guys something. Sorry it's so short! Last day of school was yesterday! And I mean last day of _high- school!

There had been some indecision about where they wanted to have dinner. Since Julia was relatively new to Star City, she had been at somewhat of a loss. Then Roy had suggested a place he went to……

"_In my spare time –and I have so much of that- I visit this place down on the South Side of town. Found it way back when I was with the Titans."_

_He glanced slyly at her. "They have the absolute best hot fudge Sundays."_

_She laughed, "Trying to influence me with chocolate, are you?"_

"_Yeah. Is it working?"_

It worked. Really, it was _chocolate_ after all.

Riding in a superhero's car was very interesting, Julia decided. She was absolutely sure that few non-superheroes were ever in this car. Just looking at all the different dials on the dashboard, she was barely refraining from folding her arms over her chest to avoid touching anything and perhaps accidentally sending herself through the roof of the car.

Dick noticed this and informed her that most of the dials had a safety on them, and she wasn't going to blow something up if she relaxed.

Julia found Dick to be very easy to talk to, after she got over being intimidated by him and his car. He did seem a lot more serious than Roy, something, Julia assumed, was bound to happen when one's father was Batman. She began to actually relax. And then Dick pulled into the restaurant's parking lot. They both got out, and she felt herself tense up again.

Dick –who had to have been the most observant person on the planet- noticed her panic. "Don't worry about it, you'll be fine. In fact, I doubt you'll need to even talk. Just walk in there and smile at him, and he'll jump off the Eiffel Tower on your say so."

Julia laughed shakily. "Really?"

"Promise."

"Thanks for picking me up and all."

"No problem. To tell you the truth, he didn't ask me to drive you; I volunteered."

Julia raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I wanted to see the woman he hasn't shut up about for over forty-eight hours," Dick admitted.

Julia blushed. "Oh, nonsense… I'm sure he's talked about all his girlfriends."

"Not particularly. Well, yes, but for a few minutes at most. Then someone else usually comes along. But with you? He's completely lost it. He called right before I came over because he was freaking out about what to wear!"

"You have got to be kidding."

"Nope. And this is Roy we're talking about. Wally and I refer to one of his shirts as his second child because he never goes anywhere without it."

Julia tried not to laugh.

"Grayson!"

Julia just about jumped out her skin. Dick looked innocently behind her. "Harper! What?"

Julia turned around to see Roy walking toward them with an extremely miffed look on his face.

"Just why do you think she needs to know about my shirts?!"

"Because it's funny?"

Julia did laugh this time. Roy scowled at Dick. Dick stuck his tongue out at Roy, bowed in Julia's direction and headed back to his car.

Julia grinned at Roy, her panic nearly forgotten. "You're second child, huh?"

Roy rolled his eyes. "He's got Lian calling it that now too." He gestured toward the sound of voices. "Shall we?"

"Shall you what?" laughed Julia.

Roy mock-scowled, "Milady, 'twas not the royal 'we' I spake of."

"Dick would have me believe otherwise."

"Ignore Dick. He thinks because he grew up with the World's Greatest Detective, that he knows everything."

Julia cocked her head to the side and surveyed him thoughtfully. "He said I might not have to talk at all."

"Oh great, now what did he say?"

"He said I could probably make you do anything, even jumping off very high buildings."

"How did he say you could do this?"

Julia walked up close to him, twining her arm around his and leaning into him very slightly. She smiled dreamily up at him.

Roy swallowed hard. "Ah, perhaps Dick is right about a few things."

"Shall we go in?" Julia grinned even wider.

"You're wish is my command. Should I jump off the very high building before or after dinner?"

Julia pretended to think. "After. You haven't given me any reason yet to want you to jump off a building."

"Sweetheart, if I give you any reason to want that, the JLA will _push_ _me_ off that building."


End file.
